Marcianus, On Public Prosecutions, Book XI. Slaves who have not reached the age of puberty are excepted from the operation of the Silanian Decree of the Senate. The Deputy, Trebius Germanus, however, ordered punishment to be inflicted upon a slave under the age of puberty; and this was not without reason, because the boy was very little under that age, and was sleeping at the feet of his master at the time when he was killed, and did not afterwards disclose that he had been murdered. As it was proved that he was unable to have assisted him, it was also certain that he afterwards kept silent; and it was held that boys under the age of puberty could only be excused from liability under the Decree of the Senate, where they had merely been under the same roof with their master, but where such slaves had been the principals or accomplices in the crime, and were of such an age as to understand what they were doing (even though they may not have reached the age of puberty), they should not be excused from responsibility for the murder of their master any more than for anything else.